7 Of The Most Expensive Drones On The Market Today

The number of high end drones and quadcopters is growing at a staggering pace. From thermal surveying to aerial mapping to elite high end videography drones have gotten very sophisticated and complex very rapidly.

Today RC Hobby Review is going to be going over some of the most expensive drones available on amazon today. We have compiled a list that will make your jaw and wallet drop.

Crash one of the more expensive drones on this list and you could be out more cash than some people pay for a new SUV. They say that money can’t buy happiness, but after viewing this of the most expensive drones, you just might beg to differ.

Here are the most exspensive drones on Amazon, starting with the highest priced drone!​​

The List of Most Expensive Drones: Most to Least Expensive

This drone tops our most expensive drone list and for good reason, the Mahatma costs as much as two Honda Civics. This shipping drone can carry up to 22 pounds or 10 KG and travel 6.2 miles or 10 KM.

There is no doubt this thing was made for delivery and not looks. It’s an octocopter that is not very exciting looking for a drone of this cost. The Mahatma does have two cameras on board, one for thermal and a regular 4K camera.

Although the Mahatma is marketed as a delivery drone, you will only have about 30 minutes of flight time to complete your delivery.

Our second most expensive drone is the X8 640 R thermal surveying and mapping drone. If you are in the business of doing roof inspections this could be the drone for you. Having a roof inspector on the ground using a thermal mapping drone verse walking around on an unsafe roof for hours could be enticing for those in this line of work.

Of course, roof inspections aren’t the only use case for this type of thermal drone. Thermal drones can be used to identify leaks in HVAC systems, large storage tanks and buried pipelines. Thermal can also be used for search and rescue, law enforcement and many other situations.

The X8 comes with a Sony A6000 camera, allowing it to take professional phots for surveying and mapping. The X8 also comes with a 7” FPV screen so that you can receive live video from the A6000 camera. You will get about 25 minutes of flight time with this drone.

However this quad still has the 7” FPV screen and the same 25 minute flight time as the X8 640 R.

This is a less expensive version of the X8 640 R drone above. The only difference is this one is missing the radiometrics option on the thermal sensor, so you wouldn’t be able to see the live temperature readings from the FPV display.

Need to shoot some scenes for the next episode of Game of Thrones or the next Avengers movie? This just might be the drone for you!

This colossal drone weighs in at 41.7 pounds and can carry a payload of up to 15 pounds. This thing caputres killer cinematic shots and can be ready to be deployed in less than 5 minutes.

As big as this drone is it can fold itself down to roughly 33 percent of its flying stance.

You can expect to get about 45 minutes without carrying a payload and about 20 minutes with a 10 lb payload (that’s with 2 12ah batteries).

The Alta does have some water resistance by way of a plastic enclosure that covers the flight control and power board. We would still be cautious in the rain or wet conditions regardless.

The Alta also has built in vibration resistance to help with the smoothness of flying the craft, but more importantly improving video and photo quality. It's easy to see how this beauty made our list of the most expensive drones on the market.​​​

After seeing the price on some of the other most expensive drones in this list the cost of the Inspire 2 almost seems inexpensive. It goes without saying that the Inspire 2 is an amazing drone for aerial videography and photography. The DJI Inspire 2 will shoot 4K at 60 fps or 5.2K at 30 FPS.

The Inspire 2 has a range of about 4.34 miles or 7KM and a flight time of up 27 minutes. DJI states a top speed of up to 58 mph, but with a good tail wind you can probably a little more.

The Inspire 2 is great for higher elevations, due to its high elevation props. The Inspire 2 is also awesome for cold environments due its heated batteries which will you longer flight times in colder temps.

The Inspire 2 has lots of redundancy for when things could go wrong, with 2 batteries, 2 barometers and 2 IMU’s. This thing has tons of sensors for obstacle avoidance, including forward and upward facing sensors. It can detect obstacles at 30 meters ahead at a speed of up to 34 mph.​​

Phantom 4 Pro

This is one of the least expensive drones on this list and as far as we are concerned one of the best bang for the buck drones on this list. The Phantom 4 Pro will shoot 4K at 60 FPS, has a 30-minute flight time and has a range of about 4.3 miles in optimal conditions (your mileage may vary).

The Phantom comes with a 1-inch 20 MP sensor. The mechanical shutter will help to alleviate distortions caused by taking shots while flying at high speeds.

The Phantom is a great deal smaller than the Inspire 2 making it a better option than the Inspire for filming or shooting in tight spaces. Of course the smaller weight of the Phantom 4 makes it less able to navigate easily in those windy days compared to the Inspire 2. Don’t get us wrong the Phantom 4 handles the wind better than most drones, but on those extra windy days the Inspire 2 wins out.

Missing from the Phantom 4 Pro are all the failure redundancies, such as dual batteries and multiple IMU’s. The Phantom 4 Pro does have the forward, rear, left and right obstacle avoidance. However the P4 pro is missing the upward sensor for obstacle avoidance.

The Phantom 4 Pro will absolutely get the job done for the pro’s in the videography and photography related business. For the amateur that wants to get some awesome looking video the P4 pro works amazingly well.​​

DJI crammed lots of features and performance into a small space when they designed and built the Mavic. The Mavic Pro shoots true 4K video at 30 FPS, a flight time of 27 minutes and a range about the same as the Phantom 4 Pro (4.3 miles).

Equipped with the DJI OcuSync feature the Mavic can transmit a live HD video steam from an impressive 4 miles away.

Again DJI gave the Mavic an amazing collision avoidance system that can detect and avoid obstacles nearly 50 feet away (front sensor). The Mavic through a system of sensors, gps and cameras can dynamically maps its surroundings. This “FlightAutonomy” feature allows the drone to be able to detect exactly where any potential objects in its path may lie.

This is an amazing UAV for drone enthusiasts on the go, due to its compact size. This might not be the drone for you if you often fly in windy conditions.​​

Most Expensive Drone : Wrap Up

Choosing the right drone can mean more than just looking at the price tag. You really need to think about the features that are important to you and make a purchasing decision based on what you plan to do with your drone. Aerial photography, videography, surveying or just flying for sport are all awesome ways to use your drone and each changes the feature set needed to get the most out of your drone.

If you are new to flying drones we recommend you consider a drone not on the most expensive drone list and get a cheaper drone or even a used drone to learn to fly on. That said, if you have a super-sized budget and are looking for a high end professional drone then you might want to consider one of the drones on this list.

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